California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) established an MBRS (Minority Biomedical Research Support) Support of Continuous Research Excellence (SCORE) program on its campus in the fall of 2001. With a competitive renewal (09/01/05), we currently have nine faculty members as principal investigators. We now propose to add an additional 12 faculty members as research investigators (6 regular and 6 pilot projects) in a supplemental application to our parent grant. By doing so, we will further meet our goals to increase the research capabilities of faculty members within the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Psychology and to provide the infrastructure necessary to support highly productive and competitive research. Goal 1 is to increase research skills and capabilities as well as productivity of participating faculty members so they will be more competitive for R01 or equivalent grants. Specific measurable objectives for the PIs on the supplemental grant will include: (1) 50% of continuing SCORE PIs will have at least one manusript accepted for publication by the end of year 2 and 75% will have at least two publications total by the end of the grant (year 3); 80% of new PIs will have at least one publication accepted by the end of the grant; (2) 100% of PIs will submit grant applications on the next SCORE competitive renewal application as regular research projects; and (3) 80% of PIs will present their research at national/international scientific meetings each year. Goal 2 is to increase institutional infrastructure to support and maintain research needs of faculty at a higher level. Informal studies (focus groups and surveys) will be conducted to determine how successfully the recommendations from the prior SCORE grant self-study have been implemented. Goal 3 is to increase community building among reseachers by holding at least four events each year for PIs to discuss research as well as issues and solutions to them. [unreadable] [unreadable] The proposed projects cover a wide range of biomedical and behavioral research, both in basic and applied areas. Provided the needed time, resources, and institutional support to carry out research, participants will become more productive and competitive for mainstream grants. This will significantly strengthen research, promote involvement of other faculty members at a higher level of research, and in line with NIH goals, provide expanded opportunities for underrepresented minorities in biomedical research. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]